August, 2001 Fan of the Month: Mike Saunders
Congratulations, you've won a signed Southside Johnny poster!

I'm very grateful to be nominated Fan of the Month and to join my illustrious predecessors in the supporters Hall of Fame (UK Branch). Like many of you out there in cyberspace, I first discovered Southside Johnny through his association with you-know-who. Having got into Bruce in 1980, I soon realized that he wasn't the only major talent to have emerged from the New Jersey swamps in the seventies. In almost every account I read of Bruce's early days, Southside would get namechecked. Then, when I heard a tape of Bruce's famous 1975 Bottom Line broadcast, he asked "You folks get down the shore much? You gotta see Southside Johnny's band." My curiosity finally got the better of me in 1983 when I bought a copy of the I Don't Want To Go Home album and fell in love with it. My conversion was finally completed shortly before Christmas 1986, when I saw Southside and the band perform two shows in one night at the Town & Country Club in London. "Follow that, every other band in the known universe," I thought to myself as I staggered home.

Although I remained a Bruce fan, I now also became a dedicated Southside enthusiast. Gradually, I tracked down the entire back catalogue (on vinyl in those days, of course), built up a large collection of reviews, interviews, live tapes and other memorabilia and made contact with fans and fanzine editors in the UK, Europe and USA. Never satisfied with simply listening to the music of any band I'm interested in, I also like to find out as much as I can about the individual members and their shared history. (Little did I know what I was letting myself in for). Before long, I'd begun an in-depth study of the life and times of Southside and the band, an investigation which continues to this day. It's a fascinating, complicated, bittersweet saga and as a result of my efforts, I've now gained something of an international reputation as an obsessive Jukes historian, genealogist, researcher, list-compiler and archivist, albeit one who lives 3000 miles from the Jersey shore! (My credentials as all-round Jukes expert recently earned me the job of compiling the Jukestock Trivia Contest).

It was only a matter of time before all the information I'd absorbed began to spill out somewhere. I penned my first Jukes article (a review of At Least We Got Shoes) in 1986, but it wasn't until 1990, when I began contributing regular and extensive Jukes features and news updates to the UK magazine For True Rockers Only, that I fully realized my talent for amateur Jukes journalism. During this period, I also produced an independent fanzine-style 24-page special on the 1992 Better Days UK tour and started writing Southside-related articles for Backstreets. In 1991, I detailed Ronnie Spector's involvement with the Jukes and the E Street Band. More recently, I solved the mystery of the 1976/77 Miami Horns and focused on Miami Steve's metamorphosis into Little Steven. The latest issue, containing my review of Jukestock, should be available by the time you read this. The Internet has also provided me with an important outlet for my ramblings, as my recent postings to the Southside Digest and the Website demonstrate. (My European Tour Report is still featured in the News and Updates section). 

One thing led to another and I eventually got the chance to interview Southside at length for For True Rockers Only in the fall of 1991, when he and Bobby came to London on a short promotional tour. I'd never interviewed anyone before, let alone any of my musical heroes, so I crossed my fingers for luck, took a deep breath and it all fell together. It was a dream come true to discuss everything from the early Stone Pony gigs to the making of Better Days. We did it all over again in the summer of 1995. Subjects covered on that occasion included the band's 1986 tour of remote army bases in Sweden, their 1987 Japanese dates and Southside's family background in Ocean Grove. (We also talked about Southside's father, Dick Lyon, who exchanged a handful of letters with me shortly before his death in 1991. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that he'd been stationed in my hometown of Brighton for a while during World War Two and had returned there on vacation several times since. Needless to say, his letters remain very special to me). Throughout both our meetings, Southside was a willing participant and displayed an uncanny talent for remembering the smallest detail from every stage of his career, veering off on entertaining tangents and providing a wealth of fascinating background information and incriminating evidence for the Saunders archives. 

In 1996, when French record company Musidisc wanted someone to write some liner notes for the upcoming live double album, Spittin' Fire, they approached Badlands, the publishers of For True Rockers Only, who in turn recommended me. Although Southside had little involvement in the project beyond giving his permission to release the Chesterfield Café recordings, it was nevertheless a thrill for me to be able to contribute. It may not be his best-known or most readily available album, but I still get a buzz from knowing that my notes are included on an official Southside release.

However, the project which has undoubtedly brought me the most recognition, personal satisfaction, nervous exhaustion and eye strain was begun in early 1989. Having noticed that the band's line-up tended to change with the seasons, I decided to try and document these regular upheavals. For the next few weeks, I studied album liner notes, magazine and newspaper articles, fanzine reports, concert photos, Southside's spoken band introductions on numerous live tapes, radio interviews, an old tour program, a fan club newsletter, observations from friends in the States and whatever else I could find. Slowly, I began to make sense of it all. In the spring, the Jukes played in London again and I presented them with the original Asbury Jukes Family Tree. Keyboard player Kevin Kavanaugh was very impressed and helped me fill in a few gaps. "Great job. Keep it up!" he later wrote. "You are truly a glutton for punishment. Good luck," added Southside, more realistically. From that point on, the whole thing gained momentum and just kept on rolling.

In the spring of 1991, Southside wrote to me unexpectedly during the Better Days sessions asking for an updated copy of the Family Tree, which was apparently under consideration for use with the album packaging. I then spent a frantic weekend re-drawing the entire thing and rushed it over to New York, but Southside eventually told me they'd been unable to use it. It was obviously disappointing, but hardly unexpected. Even back then, the Family Tree had many branches. There simply hadn't been room to fit it all in, especially into a CD booklet, where the detail would have disappeared. Nevertheless, it was an honour to even have it considered for inclusion and to know that it was passed around the studio during the recording of that historic album. 

As I later discovered, others who took part in the sessions remembered the Tree long after the album was completed. Later that year, Ronnie Spector played in London backed by a band which included Rusty Cloud. After the show, I introduced myself to Rusty as a longtime fan who'd drawn a Jukes Family Tree. Before I could even tell him my name, he asked "You're Mike?" and shook my hand enthusiastically. Then, while in Cleveland for Bruce's shows in November 1999, I finally met Little Steven. He was accompanied by Steve Popovich, the A&R man who signed the Jukes to Epic in early 1976. Introduced to them as "the guy who did the Family Tree," I was amazed to watch Steven turn to his namesake, stretch out his arms and say "You should see this thing, it's this big!" For a fan like myself, moments like that are absolutely priceless. 

As the years passed, I continued to revise, update, extend, scrap and re-draw the Family Tree as band members arrived, departed, returned after a long absence or disappeared without trace. Until recently, the Tree consisted of several large photocopied sheets of paper, but following an extensive re-design earlier this year, it now exists in professionally-printed poster form with an accompanying eight-page explanatory booklet. This definitive version of the Tree made its debut in early March at Jukestock (it even got a mention in the Newark Star Ledger) and will soon be available for public consumption. (If you'd like a copy, check out the Jukestock For Sale section at www.jukestock.com and excuse me for taking full advantage of this blatant commercial opportunity!)

At the end of the day, of course, it's all about the music. If not for the inspiration provided by Southside's voice, the soaring horn section and those great songs, I wouldn't have begun this lifelong odyssey into Jukedom in the first place. When non-believers ask why I go to multiple shows by the same group, I just reply that it's different every night, Southside's wisecracks and the band interplay are worth the price of admission alone and the entire experience is so unpredictable, entertaining and exciting that repeated viewings are essential. In a modern music scene largely devoid of originality and inspiration, where endless identical pop and rap bands dominate the charts, the Jukes continue to practice the traditional art of genuine, spontaneous, emotional live performance. They have no corporate sponsorship, no hidden agenda or long-term marketing plan. There are no strings attached, except on the guitars. They live for the moment. They're the real thing - human, fallible, mean, moody and magnificent. Capable on a good night of blowing the roof off, inspiring proposals of marriage, or at the very least, inducing a lingering glow of satisfaction and well-being. Southside himself has often stated that no matter what hassles he has to deal with in life, no matter how bad he feels before a show, the moment the band kicks in behind him, all is right with the world. I couldn't have put it better myself.

For someone who lives in London, England, it's not always been easy to see the Jukes on a regular basis, but one way or another, I've racked up a personal tally of 43 shows over the last fifteen years, in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Holland, Belgium and the USA. This includes all 10 shows on the Better Days UK tour in 1992, eight shows on the 1995 four-piece acoustic tour of Europe and all nine club shows on the just-completed June 2001 European tour. Add to that the New Years Eve appearances in Red Bank and Sea Bright in 1994, 1995 and 1997, the two summer 2000 Blues Cruise concerts in New York City and last but not least, the longest-ever Jukes gig at Jukestock last March. This total is bound to increase in the fall if the Jukes cross the pond again! It's been a long strange trip, to quote a phrase, but worth every second. 

My fifteen years of writing and concert-going have brought me into contact with Southside and various versions of the band on numerous occasions in a variety of situations and I've always found them to be in equal parts approachable, appreciative and completely mystified as to why people would want to follow them around anywhere. I've also built many lasting friendships among successive generations of the Jukes fan community, who are in equal parts enthusiastic, generous and similarly mystified as to why anybody would not want to follow the band around everywhere. Together, we make a formidable team, as Jukestock amply demonstrated. I'm proud to be a part of this international mutual appreciation society and to be able to support, promote, assist, play my part, do my thing and generally further the cause of the Asbury Jukes however and whenever possible. There's no doubt that I'm in this for the duration. It's too late to stop now!

Finally…I recently learned that a copy of my Asbury Jukes Family Tree is soon to be framed and hung in a prominent place in the Stone Pony. What more could any fan ask for?

Mike Saunders,
August 2001

P.S. The picture at the top of this was taken in Newcastle, England on the recent UK tour. I'm the one on the far right. I don't know who the other guys are. They just muscled in. They looked like a mean bunch, so I let them stay.